NORWOOD RE-JOINS BATTLE AT THE BREWERY SPONSORSHIP TEAM

Norwood is stoked the Hurricanes are coming back to Mangatainoka, as the Tui Brewery pre-season game returns to its original home.

It’s been five years since the ‘Canes last played opposite the brewery, and equally as long since Norwood was involved as a match day supporter.

“This event is a great celebration of rural New Zealand and we’re really proud to be supporting it again. We know there are plenty of players like Norwood Ambassadors the Barretts, who have grown up running around on the farm but that’s not something the rest of us typically get to see. To have Super Rugby teams playing in front of a local crowd on a farm in the Manawatu is an experience that’s hard to come by,” says Norwood General Manager - Commercial, Garry Watt.

Although it’s spent more time overlooking a grazing paddock than a rugby pitch over the last 30 years, the original grandstand still stands and local farmer Kerry Fergus took up the lease of the paddock and surrounding land last year in a bid to help bring the game back.

“The event is important to our local community, so it was very important to us to see it return home,” says Tui Brewery Experience Director Nick Rogers.

“We’re turning a paddock into a rugby field. You don’t get more grassroots than that. And it’s the support of the local rural community that makes this game so unique. That’s why we’re so pleased to have Norwood involved. They’ve long supported rural communities around the country, and they understand the rural community puts life into events like these,” says Rogers.

The Battle at the Brewery kicks off at 3pm on Saturday 9 February 2019.